


The Fight Before Christmas

by Elysandra



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: 1920s, AU, Established Relationship, F/M, Helen has a Sanctuary to build, The Five at Oxford, no John
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 16:46:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17125043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elysandra/pseuds/Elysandra
Summary: When Helen takes over her father's work, she counts on The Five to help her fulfill her dream. Nikola is right beside her - most of the time.





	The Fight Before Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xbleeple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xbleeple/gifts).



> A Secret Santa fic for xbleeple - I hope you enjoy it! <3 Happy Holidays! :) 
> 
> Also: Thank you to my wonderful elves ;) for their last-minute reading and beta!

 

Voices and music, the flickering of candles, the scent of mistletoe and hot cider, far too shrill laughter, far too many people - an almost suffocating wave of Christmas cheer washes over him as Nikola ascends from the depth of what has now been officially named “The Sanctuary”. He may still be getting used to all the noises of various abnormals next to the laboratories, but compared to this it’s... almost peaceful.

Tonight, though, the laboratories lack the warmth of a certain woman, which is what has finally brought him upstairs. Sneering at the merry chatter around him, Nikola ventures out into the midst of all the people so intend to see and be seen under the guise of following Christian traditions.

He meanders through the entrance hall and connected rooms, swerving here and there to avoid too close an encounter with anyone, and changes direction completely when he glimpses Adam with his daughter by the Christmas tree. Recently, an uneasy feeling has started to creep over him whenever The Five meet, and that’s the last thing he wants to think about tonight. Talking to Nigel also isn’t particularly high up his list, so he pretends not to have heard him hollering his name. Drunken Nigel is fun in private, but less so in public. He quickly ducks through the next doorway instead, then stops when his eyes finally fall on her.

Like finding his personal haven amidst all this, his gaze is drawn to the sight of her standing in the far corner of the library. She looks positively radiant in elegant clothes, carefully chosen to hide yet hint at the steely edge the recent years have left her with, and the light from the near fireplace sets her hair aglow. She’s standing next to James, talking intently to a man in immaculate if somewhat outdated clothes that James seems to have introduced her to. He can tell by the tense line of her neck that her good mood is being put to the test, though, and by the way James holds himself it is obvious he has noticed as well. Of course he has.

Nikola leans against the wall and watches as their guest gives Helen a slow and seemingly reluctant nod, looking unconvinced still by whatever she must have proposed. Then James steps in and takes over by adding something that has him repeat the motion with more conviction - a true and trusted strategy of theirs. Helen acts as the trail-blazer, introducing notions to those stuffy old men that must seem as foreign to them as having a woman bring them up in the first place, then James takes over to offer the chance of a ‘conversation between men’, giving them the chance to ponder the suggestion without having to listen to a woman.

Half-witted donkey heads, the lot of them, with their unwillingness to acknowledge intelligence, wit, and opportunity even when it’s standing right in front of them. He has no idea how Helen bears it.

Lost in thought, Nikola catches himself brushing his fingers over a moustache that’s no longer there. He drops his hand quickly, but of course that’s the moment Helen chooses to turn her head in his direction, catching the tail end of his action. Even from this distance, he can see laughter dancing in her eyes, but that’s okay because with it comes a genuine smile and, really, the things he does for this woman! With a light touch to James’ arm and a quick few words to their guest, she extricates herself from the conversation, having done her part anyway, and he cannot stop himself from matching her smile as she strides toward him.

“Nikola!” she greets him, slipping her arm underneath his elbow.

“Helen,” he gives back as he lets her pull him into the adjacent room. Various bottles with alcoholic beverages promise blissful relaxation in the far corner. Staff is circulating, of course, and Helen puts down an empty glass she’s been holding, but apparently desperate times call for desperate measures.

“A tedious conversation, I take it?” he teases lightly as she pours herself a little glass of something and downs it in one go, then reaches for a bottle of red wine and fills her glass almost to the brim.

“Tedious evening,” she gives back, drinking a mouthful and closing her eyes in bliss, visibly relaxing as the effects of the alcohol spread through her. He watches with delight as it brings a light glow to her cheeks that makes her look particularly alluring.

“But also one with the potential of bringing quite a generous sum of money into our accounts,” she interrupts his less than pure thoughts. “Come,” she orders, and he allows himself to be pulled further away from the hustle and noise, out onto a dark balcony where Helen leans against the banister and takes a deep breath of the cold night air. Or as deep a breath as her restrictive clothing allows, at least.

“Why is it,” Nikola bemoans, stepping in front of her, “that money almost always comes attached to old, backwards thinking, ignorant men?” Taking the glass from her, he takes a sip of the wine himself, still revelling at the fact that there’s barely any hesitation in his mind before doing so. Becoming a vampire has definitely helped him relax, at least around Helen.

Helen, who is giving him a quite reproachful look all of a sudden.

“We missed you at dinner,” she tells him, her tone clipped in a way he notices instantly thanks to years of observation. The euphoria at being saved has certainly worn off quickly.

He takes a second, larger sip of the wine even though it does nothing to help _him_ relax.

“I was doing research.”

Helen scowls. “I told you how important this dinner is if we want to expand the Sanctuary. It’s not as if researching a long extinct civilisation is a time-sensitive matter.”

“Not quite extinct anymore, thank you,” he points out, feathers ruffled. “And it is important to me.”

“As is the Sanctuary, to me at least. I had hoped for your support.”

“Yes, well, I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“Whisking me away from a party about to end is hardly what I meant, and you know it,” Helen says in a huff, crossing her arms.

“ _You_ whisked _me_ away,” he protests, only just stopping himself from mimicking her movements and crossing his arms as well. “And anyway, you won’t support my interests, either, so-”

“You _cannot_ expect me to support your attempts at resurrecting a race of slavers!” Helen protests heatedly, glaring at him. “The situations hardly compare!”

“Oh no?” he gives back just as heatedly, gesticulating dangerously with the glass of wine still in his hand. “So when you want support, I have to be there, but when I-” He breaks off when Helen snatches the glass out of his hand and downs the rest of the wine in a few large gulps, then puts it down on the stone banister without looking. It teeters dangerously but is instantly forgotten because there’s an angry Helen right in front of him, eyes blazing, and her hands have found his cravat and pull him toward her and further arguments turn into angry kisses and bites and, god, what this woman does to him!

He groans into her mouth, presses her harder against the banister in an attempt to win the upper hand in this heated, heated fight of theirs. Hands join in, his, hers, nails scratching ineffective arguments through far too thick cloth, and Helen gains the upper hand for a moment when she sinks her fingers into his hair, her nails into his neck, forcing another groan from him. But he has excellent arguments as well, and he attacks by leaving her lips and sinking his teeth into her neck, winning a moan and a writhing admission of arousal. He grins triumphantly and worries the line of her throat with his teeth, when a cough cuts through the haze of arousal.

“Helen?”

James’ voice sounds from behind and Nikola feels Helen tense against him. He groans, in the not-good-way, then takes a step back to give her room to straighten and step around him. Annoyed as he is at James’ timing, he cannot help but feel a bit smug as well. Not too long ago, Helen would have hastily pushed him back and acted as if nothing untoward had happened. Now her own annoyance at being interrupted is as plain as day to all involved.

“What, James?”

James, of course, is completely unfazed.

“Our guests are starting to leave. I thought you might want to be there.”

Helen sighs and throws a regretful look at Nikola that makes his own frustration a little bit easier to bear. Then she straightens, tugging down her clothes and making sure her hair is neat and tidy.

“Right,” she agrees, stepping around Nikola to join James. She stops at the last moment and takes hold of Nikola’s cravat once more, pulling him toward her. “Don’t think this discussion is over,” she tells him, her voice low and dark. “One hour, my room.”

And with that they’re gone, leaving Nikola to take a very deep breath. If this is Helen’s new way of discussing things, then settling arguments is going to be a very long process from now on. A very long process he’s quite looking forward to.

 


End file.
